


Concession

by LadyofHeart



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fluff, Gen, crackish i suppose, its a poor attempt at humor, maybe a little bit of feels, roxas being rude to riku because he's bitter, you could read sora and riku as shippy if you wanted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-10-16 02:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17541308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyofHeart/pseuds/LadyofHeart
Summary: Sora gets Roxas back, but at the cost of Riku's patience.





	Concession

Bringing Roxas back hadn’t been anyone’s priority but Sora’s, even if all his friends stood by him as he quested around Twilight Town to find a way to return him to the world of light. Sure, Riku and Kairi had been cheering him on, and Donald and Goofy had accompanied him wherever the clues went. But really, this was Sora’s quest, one no one could understand. They hadn’t felt what Roxas felt. They hadn’t stared into the eyes of someone so broken and stomped on by life that they finally conceded to its whims. Their lives weren’t stolen.

Yen Sid had told him Roxas was a problem he was creating when they had so many more problems to deal with. Roxas wasn’t one of the missing keyblade wielders; he wasn’t Terra, or Ventus, or Aqua, he wasn’t one of the lights. He wasn’t necessary in this war.

He didn’t get Sora’s point. Necessary in the war didn’t matter. There was life and light beyond the war (Sora had to believe that, had to believe there was an end for him to see with his friends) and Roxas, who had been hurt as much as everyone else, deserved to see that end. So he was getting Roxas back, no matter what.

And he did. He got him back. For a moment he felt like gloating, telling him that he was his own person, here’s the proof. Roxas’ shock, quickly turned thankful, was more than enough for him in the end. Things got a bit more interesting after that.

Roxas had what Sora could only call a bittersweet affection for him. Always thankful for what he did, but also holding onto all that time he had lost to a boy he barely knew. It didn’t bother Sora much; he had a pretty thick skin. And he could consider it more bitter than sweet because Roxas rarely left his side. He would’ve thought that Roxas would run to Lea’s side, but there was a weird tension between the two (mostly on Roxas’ end) that kept him close to Sora.

Which meant Roxas frequently had run ins with Riku which were… stressful, to say the least.

They had been filling Roxas in on some of the past events. Sora wasn’t even sure Roxas was listening outside of an occasional nod. After he finished talking about the Mark of Mastery exam (and his subsequent failure) Roxas turned to Riku with a sharp, not so friendly expression.

“How’s it the guy who can’t keep a keyblade becomes a Master, but you didn’t?” he said. 

Riku looked like he was teetering between retaliation and calmness. It was true Riku had gone through his fair share of keyblades, but Sora also knew that if anyone deserved to be a Master, it was him.

“Hey now,” Sora said before either of them could keep going. “Riku just took a bit to get it right is all.” He withheld from pointing out that Roxas had been using keyblades that weren’t his, either, and was probably going to find one that suited him rather than Oathkeeper and Oblivion. 

Neither of them were satisfied with the interjection, but they didn’t keep bickering. A tiny victory.

Another time, Roxas thought it would be fun to antagonize Riku while he was sitting to the side, watching him train with Sora.

“Wow, Riku, Sora basically has you beat. You aren’t going to be a sore loser and use the darkness against him, are you?”

Riku’s swing missed, but Sora was equally caught off guard by the statement to not wack him with his keyblade. They both looked up to see a smug, if a little pained, expression on Roxas’ face.

“Roxas…” Sora began, but he didn’t really know where to end the statement. Riku took a deep inhale, focused his thoughts, and then back to the training, acting as if nothing but a strong wind had blown by.

It wasn’t a lack of a reaction, not really, so Roxas found himself pleased.

 

Some time after that, Riku had been looking for Sora to have a private conversation. There were so many people and so many things to think about that a moment alone with his best friend was just the sort of reprieve he needed.

When he found Sora, he wasn’t alone. He had stepped quietly enough into the room so that he wasn’t noticed, but it was just Sora and Roxas hanging out. Well, Roxas noticed him, and if that tired (annoyingly familiar) smirk was anything to go by, he knew that Riku was probably looking for a little alone time with Sora.

He backed out of the room carefully. Staring at Roxas was like asking for a headache to come for him. It was Sora’s face contorted in constant exhaustion and anger and a certain smarminess that his childhood friend could never manage to pick up. It was Sora’s eyes, blue as the sky, played back on a different station that just threatened revenge or murder or something equally angsty.

Maybe when Riku was younger it was easier to get mad at Sora. But after everything he’d done to him, seeing his face now just made him soft and shameful. He sighed. He deserved this a little, if he was being honest. He hadn’t been the nicest to Roxas, and he worked with DiZ, who had definitely just been plain rude to him. He could handle a bit of snark and frustration.

Roxas just didn’t know when to let up.

Finding Sora without his little shadow was impossible. The only time Roxas left his side was if someone else (not Riku, never Riku) needed Sora to help them with something. They did /everything/ together. Oh, he wasn’t jealous. No way. He had done the jealousy thing before and it did not end well. 

He thought he had gotten Sora alone for just a second when they rounded a corner and bumped into each other, but there was Roxas, looming over his shoulder with an unreadable expression and a popsicle stick between his teeth.

“Oh, sorry Riku!” Sora said with his usual chipperness. “Roxas and I just got back from Twilight Town. Sea salt ice cream isn’t really the same anywhere else, ya know?”

“So I’ve heard,” he said, not breaking eye contact with Roxas.

“You should come with us next time! Kairi wants to go, too. It’ll be fun!”

Roxas leaned against Sora with an arm on his shoulder, like a lazy cat in a patch of sun. “Yeah, Riku. You owe me at least 500 munny worth of ice cream, if not a trip to the beach.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose, giving up on their weird staring contest. “Look, Roxas, I’m /sorry/ about that--”

“So you have my money? I worked for that, you know.”

Sora looked at him inquisitively. “You had a job?”

“Several.”

“Alright, look, if it’ll cool you down,” he said, already reaching to grab whatever munny he had on him.

“Cool me down?” Roxas repeated. “I dunno, I’m pretty cool right now. You seem a bit bothered though.”

Riku gritted his teeth. This was impossible. He was being impossible! On purpose! And Sora had the gall to stand there and act like it nothing was going on. Or maybe this was awkward for him. He hadn’t really considered that.

He let out a long breath, refocusing on Roxas. “I’m sorry,” he said for the second time. This was a sorry for everything he’d done. His least offense was probably stealing the munny anyway, and his worst might have been waiting this long to apologize. Roxas looked him over idly.

Roxas waved his popsicle stick around. “So, what, no munny?”

“You-”

Sora cut him off. “Roxas, we have plenty of munny for ice cream.”

He shrugged. “I know. I’m just teasing. Right, Riku?”

“...Right. I’ll catch you later Sora.” He made sure not to glance back at the two of them.

 

 

Roxas’ melancholy was palpable from miles away to Sora. He was just staring at the stars, sitting with his legs crossed in front of Yen Sid’s tower. It wasn’t often that Roxas was away from Sora. It wasn’t like he was shy, but he understood the comfort in being close to the person whose heart he had stayed in for a while.  
Sora settled down next to him, shoulder to shoulder. “We gotta talk,” he said softly.

“We’re always talkin’,” Roxas said.

“Yeah, but we gotta talk about Riku.”

“What about him?”

He sighed. “Look, I know you two had a really rough start. I know Riku did some not so great things when he was trying to wake me up. I wish I had been there. I wish I had met you before. But he’s gotten so much better and-and I don’t think this is fair.”

“Fair? My life isn’t fair. This is hardly /that/.”

“But he’s a good person! And I know he’s sorry for it all now. There are so many other things to be fighting right now. We shouldn’t fight each other!”

Roxas narrowed his eyes. They reflected the stars so clearly. Is that what Sora looked like, soft and vulnerable? Surely not as hardened. He tried not to be. He tried to not let things seep in the way they did for Roxas.

“You’re right,” Roxas finally said. “I just… it’s easier to be mad. He was terrible. DiZ was worse. I was never supposed to exist, remember? No one had to treat me like I was someone because I wasn’t anyone, so they didn’t. I shouldn’t even be mad.”

Sora laid down on his back, putting his hands under his head. “No, I think it’s okay that you’re mad. As long as you move on from it.”

Roxas looked down at him. “I’ll… try. Don’t expect me to be rushing into Riku’s arms or something. Pretty sure he still doesn’t like me regardless of how I would treat him.”

“You haven’t given him a chance. Trust me, beneath all that broodiness and hair, he’s got a real good heart.”

Roxas gave a small nod. A concession, of sorts. Maybe, a step forward.

But only maybe.

**Author's Note:**

> In all my years I've never written a Kingdom Hearts fic, but KH3 is so close that I just had to get some of the energy out. I love Roxas, and I would love to see him just give Riku shit for an hour because he lowkey deserves it (even though I love Riku very much) so this fic was birthed. Definitely don't expect me to stay long in the KH fandom though, I'm very inconsistent.


End file.
